captain_spalding said:

Back now.

Personally , i think that a lot of physios are just snake-oil sales people. Money for old rope. But, that’s by the by.

The doc recommended the capsaicin cream for just the reasons you state. Thatit’s not another pill, and that it’s not an anti-inflammatory (there’s Nurofen gel for that), but that it acts on the nerves, sort of distracting them/confusing them from the arthritis pains. Maybe a bit like noise-cancelling headphones, i don’t know, i was nearly judged to be too dumb for the Navy, let alone medical school.

An aside to this, but related, in 2006 researchers at the University of Toronto discovered that capsaicin injected into the arteries supplying sensory nerves (nociceptors) causes remission of diabetes (type-1) in non-obese diabetic mice, and prevented the disease (in NOD mice that hadn’t developed symptoms) for weeks to months.
TRPV1+ sensory neurons control beta cell stress and islet inflammation in autoimmune diabetes